Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The List - A Wish Book Book List


If you're of a certain age, you remember the excitement you felt when the Sear's Christmas Wish Book, that glorious catalog toys that came out every fall, arrived at your house. My brother, sister and I would each take turns going through every page of that catalog, circling the items we just had to have for Christmas. My parents were both teachers - needless to say, we were lucky to get even one of the things we thought we absolutely had to have.

These days my wish list is likely to be vastly more practical (I asked for a new coffeemaker for our upcoming anniversary, after all). But I sure would love to have a Wish Book show up on my door step that was full of all of the books! If it did, here are some books I'd circle, some new, some old:

1. Five Days At Memorial - Sheri Fink
2. Lit - Mary Karr
3. An Exact Replica of A Figment of My Imagination - Elizabeth McCracken
4. A Summer of Hummingbirds - Christopher Benfry
5. The Golem and The Jinni - Helene Wicker
6. Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie
7. Lila - Marilyn Robinson
8. The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters
9. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
10. The Custom of The Country - Edith Wharton
11. Texts From Jane Eyre - Mallory Ortberg
12. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea - Dina Niyari

Yep, that would keep me pretty happy for a while on a deserted island!
Posted by Lisa at 1:30 AM

4 comments:

  1. Literary FelineOctober 28, 2014 at 4:30 PM

    I remember doing that too! My brother and I would circle or make an extremely long list of everything we wanted for Christmas. I can't remember if we ever got anything we wanted from the catalogs, although I don't remember being unhappy with anything I did get . . . :-)

    My wish list would include books too, I'm sure, although I tend to ask more for gift cards, especially since I read more e-books these days than actual print books. Not that I would turn down print books. No one ever gets me print books though unless it's my husband (who goes off my Amazon wish list) or a Secret Santa through some book gift exchange.

    I enjoyed reading your list! I wish I had a paper copy of Dina Niyari's book to give you. I liked that one. I do have a print copy of Station Eleven, which I hope to get to at some point. I've had Burnt Shadows and The Golem of Jinni on my TBR shelf forever. Sad, I know. Both sound so good! Five Days At Memorial is on my wish list too.

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  2. NadiaOctober 28, 2014 at 6:53 PM

    I love your memory of the Sears catalog! I think its so cool your parents got you all something that you circled in the book - how exciting! And I know what you mean, the items on my wish list tend to be more practical now. I have to admit that a Wish Book would be awesome! I can only imagine how often I would linger over its pages :) I do keep a wish list on Amazon and tend to add and delete all the time - there are always so many new books to want! I love your list, especially Lila, The Paying Guests and Texts from Jane Eyre. Hope you do get some of these for Christmas! I'm already working on my gift list - I swear I have the holidays on my mind all the time lately. Hope you have a great week!!

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  3. JaneGSOctober 30, 2014 at 5:49 PM

    I grew up loving the Sears catalog--one of my favorite pass times as a kid was fantasizing over it. Part of it was the wonderful stuff and part was the sheer bulk of the catalog.

    Your wish list is marvelous--The Paying Guest is definitely on mine as well, and the Texts from Jane Eyre also caught my eye. I have Custom of the Country on my shelf, waiting for 2015.

    May all your wishes be granted!

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  4. Trish @ Love, Laughter, InsanityNovember 2, 2014 at 9:02 AM

    Because Andi enabled me, I figure I can enable you. Station Eleven is only $6 on Amazon Kindle right now. Merry Christmas!

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